Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS Greek Literature: Blest Bridegroom (Sappho)

Blest bridegroom, this day of matrimony, Just as you wished it, has come true: The bride is whom you wished for… You Move gracefully; your eyes are honey; Charm was showered on your radiant face – Yes, Aphrodite granted you outstanding praise The ambrosial mixture Ready in the mixing bowl, Hermes went round with aContinue reading “RKS Greek Literature: Blest Bridegroom (Sappho)”

RKS Greek Literature: Can’t Stand Being the Old One (Sappho)

As you are dear to me, go claim a younger Bed as your due. I can’t stand being the old one any longer, Living with you. Sappho (630 BCE-570BCE), “Come Close”

RKS British Literature: Hitler Did Not Betray Himself (John Fowles)

‘The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.’ ‘I suppose I could say that Hitler didn’t betray his self.’ He turned. ‘You are right. He did not. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage toContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Hitler Did Not Betray Himself (John Fowles)”

RKS British Literature: A Mad Lust Not to be Killed (John Fowles)

Desolation. Rubble, fragments of plastered wall, broken rafters, the yellow splashes of lyddite everywhere, The drizzle that had started again gleaming on the stones. On the skin of corpses. Many Germans had been caught in the houses. In ten minutes I saw a summary of the whole butcher’s shop of war. The blood, the gapingContinue reading “RKS British Literature: A Mad Lust Not to be Killed (John Fowles)”

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): The Toronto Blue Jays and an Entourage of Traitors

The Toronto Blue Jays and an Entourage of Traitors You see them on television in American ball parks travelled across the border like duped marks Obviously, baseball Trumps a sense of decent nationalism A sort of ignorant traitorous priapism Just let “you know who” rip and tear Canada and threaten and roar menacing insults ButContinue reading “RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): The Toronto Blue Jays and an Entourage of Traitors”

RKS British Literature: A Third-Class Degree and a First-Class Illusion (John Fowles)

I acquired expensive habits and affected manners. I got a third-class degree and a first-class illusion: that I was a poet. But nothing could have been less poetic than my seeing-through-all boredom with life in general and with making a living in general. I was too green to know that all cynicism masks a failureContinue reading “RKS British Literature: A Third-Class Degree and a First-Class Illusion (John Fowles)”

RKS Canadian Film: “Armageddon Road”: About Time Las Vegas a la Sodom and Gomorrah is Visited by the Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Different cultures in different points of time have given varying interpretations of their meaning. The commonality is that their appearance is bad news for the world signalling its ensuing destruction. The White Horse symbolizes conquest. Some believe itContinue reading “RKS Canadian Film: “Armageddon Road”: About Time Las Vegas a la Sodom and Gomorrah is Visited by the Four Horsemen”

RKS British Literature: Men Who Are Not Quite Up to Their Job (John Fowles)

Like all men not really up to their job, he was a stickler for externals and petty quotidian things; and in lieu of an intellect he had accumulated an armoury of capitalized key-words like Discipline and Tradition and Responsibility. If I ever dared – I seldom did – to argue with him he would produceContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Men Who Are Not Quite Up to Their Job (John Fowles)”

RKS British Literature: The Brigadier and His Dutiful Wife (John Fowles)

I had long before made the discovery that I lacked the parents and ancestors I needed. My father was, through being the right age at the right time rather than through any great professional talent, a brigadier; and my mother was the very model of a would-be major-general’s wife. That is, she never argued withContinue reading “RKS British Literature: The Brigadier and His Dutiful Wife (John Fowles)”